Inside Apple HQ

Insiders call it the Mothership. It’s Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California, and to Apple fans, it’s a place thought of with romance and wonder. Only the privileged elect have ever been deep within its most secretive recesses, but after an extensive search, I turned up 3070156 pictures Inside Apple HQ that Apple probably doesn’t want you to see.

It’s the Chocolate Factory for tech nerds. The one super-secret place we all want to see — and the one place precious few of us ever will.

Search the web for “Apple HQ” or “Apple Headquarters” and most of the results you get will be pictures of Apple’s Cupertino headquarters — from the outside. Usually with some fanboy or fangirl standing next to the “1 Infinite Loop” sign. But what we really want to see is what’s inside the ultra-top-secret place where all our favorite gizmos are dreamed up.

This discussion will be moot a few years down the road when Apple opens its gigantic new wheel-shaped campus. But for now, this is the ultimate Nerdvana, and here Apple Gazette presents a comprehensive collection of the only photos you’re likely to ever see of it.

4.9.12 – Two “Hallway” photos relocated to “Town Hall” section, as they were taken in lobby of Town Hall area.

4.9.12 – One “Meeting Room” photo moved to the “Design Lab” section, per a reader suggestion.

4.9.12 – Added name “Caffé Macs” to campus cafeteria description.

Atriums & Reception Desks

The primary executive building is located at 1 Infinite Loop. Employees call this building “IL1″ for short. When you first walk inside, you’re greeted by this welcome/reception desk, situated inside the massive, open air atrium with its bright natural light and suspended walkways.

Past MacWorld attendees may remember a few years ago when Apple created a big wall that dynamically showed off the icons for iOS apps as they were being purchased, in real time. The next year, Apple took this concept to the next level with a very long table that was filled with iPads. Both of these giant displays were carted back to Apple Headquarters in Cupertino after MacWorld ended, so that company staff could check them out.

Here’s the atrium/large interior space at another building that’s part of the Apple Campus. I can’t tell which one (maybe one of our readers can identify it?), but the architecture is different than the executive building. The original captions with these photos explain that Apple frequently brings in musicians to play mini concerts for employees during their lunch break.

An iCloud banner erected (in the same space as the 3 previous pics) to promote the storage service’s arrival

Somewhere on campus is this little area that looks like a miniature museum. Or, at least it was. The following two pictures were both taken in 1999. Can anyone verify that these items are still around, or long gone? I include these pics here, because the window reflections make them look as though they’re found at an entrance.

Special thanks to reader Rehan Mehta, who sent us these four further pictures from an inside hallway/entrance on the Apple campus. (These images are copyrighted to Rehan Mehta, and used by permission.) According to Rehan, “If I remember correctly, this was a hallway (from the 4 or 5 Infinite Loop entrance) that led straight to the courtyard in the middle.” You can see some nifty black & white pictures of Steve Jobs on these walls, along with a quote from him printed on a large canvas.

Inside Apple HQ

[Image source: Rehan Mehta]

Inside Apple HQ

[Image source: Rehan Mehta]

Inside Apple Headquarters

[Image source: Rehan Mehta]

Inside Apple HQ

[Image source: Rehan Mehta]

I have no idea what this is, but according to a Foursquare user, it’s located at IL1. Some kind of fan, or other machinery? Maybe in a utility access area?

Offices & Cubicles

That stuff’s all well and good, but what about where the actual work gets done? If you’re hoping to get a glimpse inside Tim Cook’s office, you can dream on. It’s probably one of the most off-limits areas on the entire campus. But several employees have snapped photos of their offices and cubicles. First, offices:

I can’t tell where the following photo was taken. Again, perhaps one of our readers can identify it. This is a picture that originated in Forbes magazine. Clearly it shows some sort of informal gathering place on campus, but I have no idea if it’s part of the cafeteria or another break room. You may recognize a few of the famous faces in this one.

(L-R, foreground) Jonathan Ive, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and (now ex-executive) Scott Forstall, seated in an employee gathering place on campus. Forbes described these four Apple execs as members of Steve Jobs’ “inner circle.”

Break Room

Apple is a demanding environment to work in, where everyone is expected to bring their A-game. So it’s nice to see that employees have some cool places like this to go to take a break. There are refreshments available, and informal events like the anniversary plaque presentation seen below are held here. Perhaps as a precursor to the forthcoming round-shaped “spaceship” headquarters, this Break Room is also round.

An employee is given an informal celebration of his anniversary with the company in a Break Room.

Caffé Macs

Hungry? Head over to the huge campus cafeteria, “Caffé Macs.” The food’s not free — not even for employees — but it’s inexpensive, healthy, and offers a huge selection, including lots of daily specials. Those who’ve eaten there rave over the delicious, high-quality food.

To give you an idea of the cuisine offered at Caffé Macs, here are some images captured showing signs that label and describe the specials offered. (Note that even these internal-use-only printer pages are made using Apple’s publication style guides, including the company’s signature font.)

Apple Company Store

The one and only place inside Apple Headquarters that’s open to the public is the Company Store. It’s the only place where you won’t get accosted by security for taking pictures, and the only place in the world where you can buy Apple logo merchandise, like shirts and hats (though they also sell iPods and other Apple products).

This campus phone — for use on-site only — looks as if it’s located right outside the Apple Company Store. Probably comes in handy when your close personal friend who’s an Apple executive invites you on a personal tour but security won’t let you inside.

Executive Briefing Center

Part of the 5 Infinite Loop building is dedicated to the Executive Briefing Center, which Apple uses to hold meetings with its business partners. Apple has also used it for other purposes, such as education conferences and the like. This is one area of the campus where non-employees are allowed — but it’s by invitation only. Note that most of these photos of the EBC are from about five years ago, so they may not reflect its current configuration.

Apple HQ Executive Briefing Center: a Mac demo area in the stylish lobby. Note the photos on the walls.

Town Hall

When Apple calls one of its trademark “keynote” press conferences, it usually takes place at a public facility in San Francisco. But occasionally, for a more intimate setting, Apple brings the press to it’s own theater, which it calls the Apple Town Hall. Located at 4 Infinite Loop, a number of events have been held here over the years, including the infamous “Antennagate” event.

Labs

The holy grail of Apple headquarters is the place where the real magic happens: the labs. These super-secret departments are responsible for the creative design and building of Apple’s sleek, sexy products. The labs include the Computer Labs, the Wireless Testing Lab, and Jony Ive’s Industrial Design Group Lab, among others.

An Apple employee posted the next two photos on Flickr, describing the area only as “the lab.” Obviously it’s some kind of computer lab, but it’s anybody’s guess as to exactly what happens there, or where on campus it’s located. It’s not a flashy place, but I’d bet it’s important.

For the first time ever, Apple opened up some of its most private doors for the press to see after the “Antennagate” outcry following the release of the iPhone 4. Namely, they showed off the state-of-the-art Wireless Testing Lab where Apple puts its latest iPhone models through their paces, testing things like signal strength and user interference.

There’s one place inside Apple HQ that most tech heads and Apple fanboys would crawl buck naked over broken glass to get inside of. Deep within the bowels of hardware manufacturing building IL6 — seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was underground — is the Industrial Design Group Lab. Given how jealously Apple guards its secrets, it’s surprising to get even a single glimpse of it — much less the treasure trove of images you’ll find below. Ladies, enjoy the Ive-y eye candy in this first one. Behind his biceps are some pretty hardcore industrial machinery.

Those two images were part of this article when it was originally published. But more recently, I hit the motherlode. An official recruitment video made by Apple was leaked onto the Web, and within it were several terrific looks at the inside of the Design Lab. I took screengrabs of every location, and present them below.

Bandley Fitness Center

On another part of Apple’s campus is located a building called the Bandley Fitness Center. Providing full-service exercise equipment to Apple employees, it includes treadmills, weightlifting machines, and more.

here we go again. there is always one fanboi to start this trash again. I’ll settle this. look, depending on what time you check, Apple is the most valuable company in the word, other times it is the second. Even android somehow over took Apple in over all sales and etc, Apple isnt going anywhere for a LONG time, simply because of the sheer value of the company and amount of money they have amassed. so, please, stop this fanboyism and just enjoy the damn articles.

Invincibility has been said about a lot of companies – and no one has attained it – as Jim Cramer of Mad Money commented: “Apple without Steve Jobs is just another tech company.” Enjoy the ride while it lasts – but it will eventually end – sooner or later.

If they are still using those iMacs and the reception does look that dated, it is no wonder that they are building a new campus. I kind of imagined that the inside of the campus would be super modern, even if some of the buildings are a bit old.

i find the halls of apple very cheesy and not stylish at all! doesnt fit the imag3e at all. should be redone!!!! hope norman foster makes it better. probably should have given it to clive wilkonson who does all the ad agencies like chiat day and stuff. facebook hq look s more cool than this. needs graffitti needs to be young fresh and dynamic! it looks like a middle age spa–spanish style tuscan colors! absolutely pathetic!!!!!

Most of these are public areas that are not strictly off limits. A few are off limits. Very nice collection of photos. If you’ve been there, you’ll recognize things. BTW, the campus cafeteria is called “Cafe Macs”, is huge, everything under the sun is cooked fresh and served, and it’s mega cheap. I got a gourmet dinner for $8. And walking through Cafe Macs, you’ll hear almost every language in the world spoken.

Sorry to break it to you, but, the picture with Ive holding the MacBook Pro, is not in his design center. It’s in the Reliability Lab. The machines behind him, are used to test devices in extreme conditions.

They are CNC Milling machines, not reliability testing machines. Look at the machine over in the right hand corner you can see the spindle of the machine and you can see the round tool holder turrets at the top of the other machines, like wise are the machines where Ive is with Jobs etc. They are very clean workshops though.

BTW, the only thing infamous about the so-called antennagate affair was the silliness of the media. There was no unusual problem with the antennas. Gizmodo was angry about being busted for receiving stolen materials.

well Mr sad it appears that you probably never owned an APPLE product ever.which explains the “name”(fits you though) and your i-don’t-have-one-so-its-bad AND everyone-loves-it-i-have-to-hate-it attitudes.My advice? get an apple device. thus get a life.

people like you are not anything but mighty jealous of the company.well,the grapes are sour for you after all.

Looks very much like any ordinary institution, in fact reminds me a lot of elementary school, with requirements of hall passes to get along. Kinda disappointing, and takes away from the illusion that Apple has figured out a way to harness creativity by having modified the architecture and structure.

while I’m proud of apple’s achievement, I think it’s a bad thing that they take 30% out of their iTune store items and that it’s really bad for an apple developer to pay developer license even when they’re not selling an app yet.. This pissed me off, because apple is already a really big company, and yet they keep taking from poor people like us.. Isn’t it time for apple to give back?? I just hate them sometimes… With all their glowing products, and yet a 3rd world people like me still live in a slump..

Some clarifications based on my visits to the public areas of Apple’s campus over the years:

The picture labeled “IL4 lobby” is just the IL1 lobby again. IL4 shows up later in the set and is quite different.

The “miniature museum” with the campus model and old computers was in the IL4 lobby, on the courtyard side of the glass security wall (which is in the background of the second shot) near the entrance to Caffe Macs. I saw these during visits in 1999 and 2000, but they’re long since gone now.

The third and fourth images under “Hallway Sights” are of the IL3 atrium and reception desk.

The four images from Rehan Mehta are of the IL4 atrium as it exists today. The second image is what you see not long after you enter from Infinite Loop. Look left and you’ll see the Steve Jobs quote. Back in the second image, you can see the security glass straight ahead toward the courtyard. There’s no reception desk in this foyer, but signs indicate there’s one up those stairs on the left. You can see past the glass that there’s a poster on the left wall — this is the Steve Jobs poster in the third image, beyond which is the entrance to Caffe Macs. Opposite this poster is the one in the fourth image.

Some of the pictures under “Room & Door Signs” must be pretty old. During my visits 10-14 years ago, signs with the old Susan Kare bitmap icons were still everywhere, but on my more recent visits almost all have been replaced. The bathroom signs in particular are the same generic icons you see everywhere now. Pity.

The “Outside Town Hall” pictures depict the same area as the Rehan Mehta series earlier, but they’re a bit older. The second of these is from closer to the outside entrance, letting you see the curved wall of Town Hall — the similar image from Rehan Mehta is from twenty feet or so forward, so you don’t see that wall. The textured wall on the left has been replaced with the Steve Jobs quote, and the reception desk has moved upstairs.

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